In recent years shaving razors with numerous blades have been proposed in the literature and commercialized, e.g., in U.S. 2005/0039337 A1 published on Feb. 24, 2005, which generally describes a type of design that has been commercialized as the five bladed Fusion™ razor by The Gillette Company.
Many shaving consumers prefer the look and feel of a close smooth shave and thus shave on a daily basis; however, there is a population of consumers that prefer not to shave on a daily basis. These consumers may prefer the look and feel of hair growth of one or more days. These consumers are often referred to as “skippers” because they will skip shaving for one or more days. The shaving habits of skippers produce a problem for typical shaving razors because these razors are designed to shave effectively on a daily basis and are not specifically designed for the shaving habits of skippers.
Short hairs are typical of hair growth of approximately twenty-four hours. Standard shaving razors cut shorter hairs rather effectively because the short hairs have a tendency to stand straight up. The edge of a blade on the razor is able to cut the short hair at an optimum angle. Longer hairs typically bend over as they grow and lay flat on the skin The blade of a typical shaving razor will have the tendency to skive or cut the hair at a more parallel angle to the skin surface. Some hairs may lie flat such that the blade of the razor is unable to cut them. The user often has to shave the same area repeatedly to cut hairs that were either uncut or not cut close enough to the skin surface, resulting in increased skin irritation.
It is therefore desirable to provide a shaving razor with the increased safety and comfort of a guard that provides superior long hair cutting performance while minimizing skin irritation.